CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22846, 29 September 1937, Page 7

CONTRACT BRIDGE

REBIDDING SIDELIGHTS - MISSING THE GAME BY C. L., EASTGATE Anyone, you might say, can make a respectable shot at an opening bid and iiot go fax wrong; even if a mistake is made it is sometimes not too lato to repair it later. But it is in a rebid where you will get most divergence of opinion, and you hnve no doubt listened to those post-mortems of a somewhat acrimonious flavour whero two alleged oxperts each give their highly considered opinion of the other's bidding and underbidding, and call on tho spirit of Hoyle to witness that it was not their fault. Strangely enough, it will often be found that the ordinarily conservative opening bidder will indulge in an orgy of rebidding when his partner remains discreetly silent (he cannot do any more in tho way of discouragement, except, perhaps, by a highly unethical emphasis), and the opponents are bidding away merrily. Inability to Visualise

On the other hand, and perhaps this is more common, a player will entirely fail to realise when to make a jump, or a strong bid; tho cause of this is, I suppose, an inability to visualise his partner's limitations, which may compel him to drop the bidding short of game, when the two hands fully warranted a game contract. fake the following hand for instance:— East dealer. North-Scmth vul.

You will see that South quite rightly refused to make a vulnerable overcall of the opening bid; West made tho normal bid of one heart, and North preferred to lie in wait for tho heart contract rather than make the not particularly constructive call of two clubs. South' continued his discreet silence over East's one no-trump, but when West's two-diamond bid was about to close tho bidding ho very properly thought it was time to take some notice; it was obvious that North liad something. So he inserted the feeler bid of two spades. Unimaginative Response

Now, North's response was unimaginative, and far from good. The mere fact that South had been able-to find a bid at the level of two, vulnerable, should have made North optimistic. Surely ho might have stretched a 'point and bid, say, four clubs, instead of three? Then if South were able to rebid his spades he would have the assurance that his three trumps were sufficient. Ap it happened, his underbid of three clubs would 5 not have been altogether fatal if he had rectified it on tho next round of the bidding; he, could have jumped to four spades. But on North's actual response South could not be criticised for failing to go game.

South is playing a contract of six no-trumps, and West has doubled and opened the seven of hearts. The solution is as follows: —South wins with the heart jack, and then tho entire club suit is run off. On the fourth club West can safely discard a spade (dummy does likewise), but on the fifth club West must let go a heart to hold-the diamond and spade stoppers. Dummy blanks the spade ace. The heart queen iB now led, and if West ducks, dummy overtakes with dummy's king The heart douce now drives out West's ace. West now returns the spade jack; dummy's blank ace wins and the heart ten is cashed. Dummy, now has the A-10-2 of diamonds. East's holding does not matter. Declarer keeps the spade queen and the K-9 of diamonds; West is squeezed. He must either throw away his spade king, establishing declarer's queen, or unguard the diamond suit. CURRENT EVENTS At the Northern Contract Bridge Cltib the scratch and handicap teams-of-four competition was continued, with results as follows: —Mrs. Nettleton's team defeated Mr. Wylie's team by 490 points, Mr. Tucker's team defeated -Mrs. Caughey's team by 2030 points, Mr. Stratton's team defeated Mrs. Noakcs' team by 3010 points, Miss Langley's team defeated Mrs. HamlinWhite's team by 2230 points, Mr. Hamilton's* team defeated Mrs. Cleghorn's team by 320 poiiits, Mr. Eastgate's team defeated Captain Barnes' team by MO points. .Mr. Jilastgate's team has won tho B section with 6 wins and 1 loss. The A section is not yet completed. The respective winners will play off. ; * • At the Auckland Bridge Club a special Howell movement pairs for men resulted as follows: —R. McNamara and N. 0. Morgan, 52§ matchpoints, 1; W. B. Colbeck and Dr. A. J. Friedlander, 46J points, 2; and J. M. McDougall and W. G. Watkins, 42J points, 3.

West leads a low diamond; how must declarer play to fulfil his contract?.